


That Girl from the Dating Sim: an Interactive Reader Insert

by Carrie_oke



Category: Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Genre: Gen, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-03-15 11:06:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3444767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrie_oke/pseuds/Carrie_oke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your game was just plugged in this morning, and now that the arcade's closed, you decide to go exploring Game Central Station with your friends. Where will you go? Who will you talk to? Will there be any new friendships? Adventure? Romance? That's for YOU to decide.</p><p>At the end of each chapter is a list of possible paths to take. Just comment with which one you want, and I'll either use the first comment or the most common choice to determine what happens in the next chapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: I think of reader insert protagonists as RPG player characters. Think Link from the Legend of Zelda games; he has a set personality, but you get to name him. And it's the same idea here. So I figured that since it's Wreck-It Ralph, why don't I make this into a game? Please note that the choice system may stop once I get an idea of where the story should go.
> 
> And while the default reader character is female, you're welcome to swap out the pronouns.

The year is 201X. You're trapped in your hardware, dark, silent, until the flick of a switch and a surge of electricity shock you to life. Soon, the doors visible from your newly awakened world swing open, and a crowd of unfamiliar people rushes into the building you're apparently inside. One of the crowd members glances in your direction, and you can barely hear them say, "Hey! New game!" They hurry towards your machine and press that big pink button.

And though you've only been alive for a minute at most, you know exactly what to do.

"Hey there!" you say, smiling at the player. "Great to see you again! It's been, what, a day?" You laugh a bit. "It's so weird that we're neighbors now. Anyway, your girlfriend came by earlier. Uh, what was her name again? Sorry, I'm so bad at this."

In front of you, a menu appears with three large buttons, each with a picture of another character in your game and her full name. Though you haven't technically met Carla de la Rosa, Brittany Hart, or Kyoko Sakurai yet, you're well aware they're around, and that they're all dateable. It's in your code to know these things.

After a few moments of thought, the player picks Kyoko. "Oh, yeah!" you say. "Kyoko told me she needed you in her family's restaurant. Half the waiters are sick, and it's REALLY busy in there. Think you can handle it?" You pause for a moment, and though there's no response from the player, you say, "Awesome. Good luck in there!" You wave, and the screen switches to where Kyoko is. You're needed again shortly; the player's character supposedly calls you for help, and you give him instructions for Kyoko's game. But after that, you just have to wait patiently until this game ends and the next player inserts a quarter.

And that shouldn't be long. You manage to get a glance at the screen again, and you see there's a long line of quarters on the machine. Makes sense; the game IS brand new, after all. Today is going to be as busy as Kyoko's restaurant.

\-----

You were right; it WAS a busy day. While it was fun, you're glad you get to take a rest for some time every game. If someone else came and inserted quarter number twenty-seven or so, you wouldn't even mind.

But no one's inserted a quarter for a few minutes now. In fact, it looks like the building's almost empty. And soon, you hear a girl in another machine call, "Okay, the arcade's closed!"

"Ugh, finally!" Kyoko says, coming into the starting screen from her restaurant. "I thought they'd NEVER stop picking me!"

"Come on!" says Brittany, entering from the concert hall, where the player is supposed to act as her replacement guitarist. "I got picked a bunch of times, too! Do you know how many times I had to sing 'Happy Together'? There are other songs available, you know!" She giggles. "But who am I kidding? It was fun!"

"I'll say!" chimes in Carla, coming from the running racetrack, where the player has to sub in for one of the members of her track team. "It was great falling in love with all those people! I had the emotional ride of my life!"

"See, that's the problem," Kyoko complains. "Why do we have to ACTUALLY fall for all those people? It's embarrassing!"

"It's in our programming," Brittany answers. "They play our game, we date them, and then the game ends, and our feelings are wiped clean! It's what the code says."

"Has the code ever heard of acting?" Kyoko retorts. She then turns to you, finally acknowledging your presence. "You're lucky, ______. All you gotta do is point the player in the right direction."

You don't know what to say to this, so you just nod and change the subject. "So you know my name, and I know yours, Kyoko. I take it we all know each other."

"We're all supposed to be friends," Carla informs you. "The game just never gets around to telling the player that."

"Oh. Really?" You think for a moment, checking your pre-programmed knowledge. "Oh, yeah!" you exclaim. "I'm also supposed to be the player character's cousin. Didn't really think about that."

"That explains why you're not dateable," Brittany comments.

"Well, there's no reason I couldn't have just been a friend, but alright. So..." You take a moment to look around the game's world. "What should we do now?"

"I think we know enough about THIS place already, so how about we explore somewhere else?" Brittany suggests.

"Okay, but where?" Kyoko asks.

"Wherever that train takes us would be a good start." Brittany points to a small train station, just outside of the players' view.

"Sounds exciting!" Carla says. "Let's go!"

The four of you head to the train station and hop in a heart-covered car. Soon, the train rolls forward, and within a minute, you emerge from a dark tunnel and come to a stop in Game Central Station.

You take a look at your new surroundings. "Huh. Different," you say. "You think this is how we get to other games?"

"I sure hope so!" Carla shouts, already close to the nearby door. "Come on, everyone!"

You, Kyoko, and Brittany stand up and meet Carla at the door. But before you can go through it, you're stopped by a holographic figure with a notepad. "New game registry. Don't be alarmed," he says. "Names?"

You and your friends take turns introducing yourselves, and then the security guy asks, "Game?"

You answer for the group. "Dating Dash Arcade." The name suggests there's a console version of your game out there, but for obvious reasons, you've never seen it.

"Alright. Just be sure to return to your game before the arcade opens tomorrow. Don't die outside your game, and don't take anything from other games out of their designated machines. Got it?"

"Got it!" all four of you answer.

"Then you're good to go." He disappears, revealing the vast hallway that is the hub of Game Central Station. Characters of every shape, size, and species fill the station with bustling activity. And behind them, you can see a row of tunnels leading to some of their worlds.

"Wow," you say, stepping out of your game's own tunnel.

"'Wow' is right," Brittany says. "Oh my gosh!" She turns to you and asks, "So, where to first?"

You missed the meeting that designated you the leader of the group, but you're not complaining. As for the question, you decide to visit...

>Fix-It Felix, Jr.

>Hero's Duty

>Sugar Rush

>Pac-Man

 


	2. >Fix-It Felix, Jr.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember that the choice at the end is for what you're going to do FIRST, and that any of them can be done later. If there's one you want done first but another you still want to see happen at some point, feel free to mention it in your comment.

You step forward to get a closer look at the doors and consider your options. After a moment, you turn to your friends and say, "Let's see what's going on in that Fix-It Felix game."

"But what about that Sugar Rush one?" Kyoko suggests. "I want to see what that's about!"

"It _does_ sound interesting," you reply. "How about we visit that one afterward?"

"Sounds good to me!" Brittany says. "Lead the way!"

You nod, turn back around, and walk in the direction of the Fix-It Felix tunnel. On the way, you can't help but notice the huge variety of characters sharing this station with you. They cover the whole spectrum, it seems, from giant monsters to cute little animals, from simple shapes to extremely detailed human characters, from medieval warriors to futuristic hoverboard surfers. As a cartoonish human in a T-shirt and jeans, you can't help but feel a little dull in comparison. But at least you're not getting stopped every two seconds because someone noticed you're new.

And you reach the tunnel in a reasonable amount of time. You check to see that your friends are still behind you, and luckily, they are. So you head inside and take a seat on this game's train, and so do the others. Once you're all in, it carries you into the game.

Soon, you arrive at a quiet little area where it seems to be nighttime. It's grassy, with a few trees off to the side, a few picnic tables, and a pile of rubble, but the focal point of the place is...

"A building," Kyoko says. "A single building. Is that really all this place has? Okay, time to go to Sugar Rush."

"Hey, it's a big building," Brittany offers.

"And we don't know what's inside!" Carla adds. "We can't judge a game by its console art!"

You nod. "Right. We should at least look inside before we form any final opinions." So you all stand and leave the train. Since the pile of rubble probably has fewer secrets to uncover, you head for the building.

"Niceland, huh?" you say to yourself as you approach the door. "I guess we can just go in. I doubt this entire building is one person's house." So you push the door open, and the others follow you inside.

"Welcome to Niceland Apartments!" the lady at the front desk says once you enter. "How may I help you?" You notice she's very small; she has to sit on a stool to be visible behind the front desk.

"Not really," you answer for the group. "We're new to the arcade, and we're just looking around."

The receptionist's eyes light up. "Gosh, really? We hardly ever get new visitors! Here, I'll call down Gene so he can show you around."

Before she can dial a single number on her phone, Brittany asks, "What about this Felix your game's named after? Is he around?"

"Felix has gone out to meet his wife in Hero's Duty," she informs you. "I wouldn't want to send you girls _there_ , especially since you don't seem programmed for combat, so why don't you spend some time here for a while?"

"Thank you, but I doubt we'll be here for too long," you say. "We were actually planning on visiting Sugar Rush next."

Close by, a voice says, "Sugar Rush? That's where I'm headed!" The sound of powerful footsteps only gets louder as whoever this is approaches the ground floor, and you can almost feel the building shaking. Finally, he finishes stomping down the steps, and you can finally take a good look at him. He's human, like you and your friends, but with disproportionately large hands and feet. You wonder if he's part ape, but you decide against asking him.

The receptionist smiles at him, without a hint of nervousness at his clearly superhuman strength, and says, "Hello, Ralph."

"Hey, Sandra."

Sandra, realizing you probably don't know this Ralph person, turns to the four of you and explains, "That's Wreck-It Ralph, our bad guy. I'll admit we didn't really like him at first, with all that wrecking of the building. You know what it's like, having a bad guy, don't you?"

You and your friends glance at each other before Carla answers, "Not really."

Sandra continues. "Well, if you ever come across them, know that during gaming hours, they're just doing their job. They could be the nicest people you've ever met once you take the time to chat with them! That's something we had to learn. So don't be afraid to give Ralph a chance!"

"Okay, maybe we will. Thanks for the advice," you say politely.

"No problem!"

"In fact," you say, "we could come with you, Ralph!" You then turn to your friends to ask, "You guys weren't set on seeing the rest of the building, were you?"

After hearing a "Nope" and a couple of "Not really"s, you look back at Ralph. "So you mind if we come with you?"

"Uh, sure," Ralph says, shrugging. "I mean, no."

"Cool!" You turn to walk out the door, followed by your gamemates, and then Ralph. Soon, you reach the train, and you pile in. You, Carla, Kyoko, and Brittany can squeeze in two to a car, but Ralph needs his own.

There's just silence during your train ride to the station, but once you're there and out of the vehicle, Ralph asks, "So...what game are you guys from?"

"Dating Dash Arcade," you tell him. "It's a dating sim."

"A dating sim?"

"Well, sort of. A lot of it's minigames."

"No, I mean, what's a dating sim? We've never had one of those before."

"Oh!" you say. It never occurred to you that dating sims might not be all that common in arcades.

Carla jumps in to explain for you. "It's short for dating simulator! You get a virtual date with the character of your choice! Really, it's a lot of fun."

"Yeah, for the _player_ ," Kyoko grumbles. " _We're_ stuck falling for at least five random strangers a day."

"Speak for yourself, Kyoko," Carla says. "Oh, that reminds me! We forgot to tell you OUR names! I'm Carla, that's Kyoko, right there's Brittany, and she's ______!" She points to each of you as she mentions the respective names.

Brittany waves at Ralph. "Hi!"

"Yeah...hey," Ralph says. As you all walk into the Sugar Rush tunnel, he asks, "Wait, so all of you have actually fallen in love with players?"

Kyoko handles this one. "Yep. All of us except ______."

The five of you climb into the Sugar Rush train, which appears to be made out of real candy. Ralph takes his place in the back and asks, "I thought they said that was really dangerous, getting attached to players. There's a whole screen between you, not to mention game characters don't age."

Carla gasps. "Do you mean that it's happened before? Oh, how tragic!"

"Only, like, once, I think. We're not supposed to talk about the details."

You can hear Carla whisper "Darn!" as the train reaches the pink, saccharine wonderland that is Sugar Rush. It's amazing how much the place resembles a theme park; you're tempted to head straight for the roller coaster before the line gets too long. Right after you take a chunk of the ground for dessert.

But you can't do either of those things, especially because there's a rule about taking things away from their games, so instead, you have to settle for walking on top of the sugary ground until you reach the race track. Once there, you all stop. "Oh, you don't have to keep following me," Ralph tells you. "I'm just gonna go see a friend. If you want to go explore or something, feel free." Then he walks on ahead to meet this person.

"Should we follow him anyway?" Brittany asks.

Well, you've got a few possibilities on your mind.

>Go follow Ralph.

>Talk to that blonde girl sugarcoating her race car.

>Ask one of those excited pieces of candy what's going on here.

>Attempt to find out more about that tragic love story.

 


	3. >Talk to that blonde girl.

You figure that Ralph would be better off talking to his friend on his own like he originally planned, so instead of following him, you survey the area. It looks like something big's going on here; the food package-shaped stands are filled with enthusiastic pieces of candy, peppy music fills the air, and a giant screen flashes video clips of racers in action. You look up just in time to see one of those racers wink at the camera before zooming offscreen, and when you look down, that same girl is right by the starting line.

With one gloved hand, she pushes her platinum blonde hair out of her face, and with the other, she polishes her race car with some kind of...strawberry glaze? Is that what the jar says? You step forward to get a closer look, and she notices you doing so the next time she looks up.

Instead of just going back to what she was doing, she stops and pulls her lollipop out of her mouth. "Yeah? What do you want?"

"I was just looking around," you tell her. "We're new here and thought this game looked interesting. That's a nice car you have, by the way!"

"It looks delicious," Kyoko whispers. "I wanna lick it."

"Please don't lick it," Carla whispers back.

"I wasn't going to. But still." You can't blame her, honestly. The body of the vehicle looks like it's made of strawberry-flavored lollipop.

The car's owner, meanwhile, switches from a scowl to a smile in seconds. "Thanks!" she says. "It's custom made, only from the best hard candy in the entire game! Of course, I wouldn't settle for anything less."

"I...can tell," you say. "Anyway..." You glance up at the screen in time for it to list the names of the racers, and this girl's picture appears next to the name "Taffyta Muttonfudge." So you're good to continue. "Anyway, Taffyta, can you tell us what exactly this is? This race after hours?"

"Sure thing! This is the daily Random Roster Race! First through ninth place get to be on the avatar selection screen tomorrow. Not that I'm worried I'll get lower." Her confident smile gets bigger. "I never have."

"What about that one time?" asks another racer, whose cupcake-themed helmet is topped with a candle.

Taffyta whips her head around to yell, "Oh, come on, Candlehead! That was when Gloyd licked my wheels!"

"And you got stuck in the taffy pits!" Candlehead starts laughing hysterically. "We had to get a toffee truck!"

"Ugh, just shut up!" After taking a moment to calm herself down, Taffyta turns back to you and your friends. "So, speaking of my kart, would you mind finishing this coat of polish? I promise it won't take long." That syrupy-sweet smile of hers is starting to make you suspicious.

"Hey, Taffyta!" calls who you presume to be another racer, running into the starting area with Ralph trailing behind her. Must be the friend he was talking about. "What did I say about making people do chores for you?"

Taffyta jumps and spins around so she's facing this other girl. "Oh, um, Miss President!" she stammers. "I didn't see you there!"

"I just got here, DOY," the "President" replies. "And you didn't answer me. What did I say?"

"You said to...STOP making people do stuff for me."

"Those weren't my _exact_ words, but I'll let it slide." She suppresses a laugh. "And I told you! You don't have to call me Miss President! I'm _Vanellope_."

"R-right. Just don't scare me like that."

"Hm...I'll think about it." Vanellope turns to address your group. "So you're the new girls ol' Stinkbrain brought in here, huh?"

You and your friends nod.

"Welcome to my country! I'm President Vanellope von Schweetz. And this is my Candy Cabinet, Sour Bill."

You look down to find that there's a sad-looking green ball standing next to him. "Hello," he says, as if out of obligation.

"Not the brightest guy around here, but he's all that guy left me," Vanellope says as soon as you look back up.

"Who?" Brittany asks.

"King Candy. He's gone now." The President seems eager to drop the subject, and she does with her next sentence. "We were just about to start the race! Why don't you guys come watch?"

"Well, the stands seem a bit...full," you say, glancing around at the packages full of cheering candy.

"There's room in the booth up there!" she points out, indicating the space at the top of a nearby tower. "Not like I'm gonna need it once I get racing!"

"Really? Thanks!" It's not every day you're offered a seat in the presidential tower. You're fairly certain of this, even though you've only been around for one day.

"Hey, no need to thank me. It's my treat! Just don't go braggin' about it, okay?"

"Okay!" all four members of your group reply.

"Good. Just take the stairs, and you'll get up there."

"Got it," you say, and you let Vanellope lead the rest of you up the stairs. "But what about Ralph?"

"We don't let him up here for safety reasons."

When you get a chance to look down, you find that Ralph is pounding a seat for himself into the ground. "I can see why," you comment.

Once you're up there, you all take a seat all the ground, except for Vanellope, who has the fancy chair reserved in her name, and Sour Bill, who uses the arm rest. "Welcome to the I-stopped-counting daily Random Roster Race!" the President announces, hands tucked into her hoodie pockets. "As you all know, entry is now free. Can you believe some of us still need to be reminded?"

On the ground, a boy sheepishly hides his giant gold coin behind his back.

"Now, racers, take your places!" Vanellope calls before turning to you and saying, "That includes me."

It takes you a second to realize you're blocking the exit, when when you do, you scoot away as fast as you can. "Oh, sorry!"

"Ah, it's fine." Vanellope hurries down the stairs and hops into her kart, leaving you a bit more room to stretch.

"On your mark," Sour Bill says, without any emotion whatsoever. "Get set." He waits another moment before finishing with, "Go."

The racers zoom away from their starting positions, and soon, they disappear from sight. Luckily, you have that giant screen to give you live footage of the race, and you focus on that. Carla seems to be enjoying herself, but after a while, you start to get a little bored. So you...

>Pick a racer, and focus on them.

>Climb down, and go explore somewhere else.

>Try to get some information out of Sour Bill.

>Check the stairs to see if anyone's climbing up to join you.

 

 


	4. >Pick a racer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, I hope I'm still doing this okay.

Maybe it'll be easier to be interested in the race if you can focus on one particular racer, instead of trying to take in all that information. But which one?

You start out following Taffyta, since you talked to her first, and you want to see if she's as good as she claims. A few minutes in, however, someone else gets your attention. Vanellope passes the blonde, but...you don't actually see her passing her. Instead, she seems to warp from behind to ahead.

Once you switch your focus to Vanellope, you find that you weren't just seeing things. The President jumps from place to place on several occasions, exercising executive power in more ways than one. Now you're curious.

So you turn to the one person in the booth who might know something about this. "Excuse me, Sour Bill, is it?" you say.

"Yeah?" he replies, with a hint of surprise in his otherwise monotonous voice.

"Has Vanellope always been able to teleport?"

"Not always. But for a while."

"Huh." Now that you think about it, you aren't sure why you would ask that question, since you assume game characters rarely get new abilities. It's quite a surprise that at once point, this power wasn't there. "What happened?"

"It's a long story, Miss."

"But is there some kind of abridged version?" Now you _really_ want to know. "Or is it a secret?"

Bill just looks at you for a moment before nervously asking, "You're not gonna lick me, are you?"

"What? No!" you say. "I'm just curious."

He sighs of relief, making you wonder if that's happened to him before. But you don't plan on asking; you'd rather stick to one question at a time. "All you need to know is that there was a ruler before Vanellope, and that was King Candy. And he altered the code to turn Vanellope into a glitch. But all that's behind us now; I'd rather not go into detail."

"I understand. Thanks!" You turn back to the screen, still not satisfied, though not showing it. How do you just _change the code_ like that? And what happened to this King Candy person? Why haven't you seen him?

And why is there smoke coming out of that car?

Yes, _one of the cars has crashed and is now smoking._  You can't tell who exactly its owner is, but they seem devastated, judging by the way they're sulking on the side. What's even worse is that a few of the cars are zooming by without them! Is everyone THAT desperate to be on this "random roster" tomorrow?

The camera soon switches to the few cars in the lead, two of them being Vanellope's and Taffyta's. Before you go ahead and judge them, you decide it's best to know if they even saw that poor racer. You don't know how far ahead of the others they are.

It dawns on you that maybe _you_ should do your part in helping, too. But how? All you can think to do right now is ask your friends about this. "Did anyone else just see that?" you say.

"Yes!" Carla replies. "It's horrible! I hope that kid's okay!"

"And Swizzle, too! He's really been falling behind," Brittany adds.

"Which one's he?" Kyoko asks, not as disturbed as the others.

"The orange kid with the lollipop theme! I've been looking at him because I like his name. And he was in, like, fourth place just a minute ago! Now he's in fifteenth."

"But that's out of sixteen. Who's the last one?" asks Carla.

But the answer to her question is put on hold, because just then, Vanellope crosses the finish line. "Yes! I won, I won, I won, I won!" She hops out of her car and does a little victory dance while Taffyta crosses the line.

The latter just says, "Whatever. You totally cheat," but after a glare from Vanellope, she changes her tone. "I mean, great race!"

Carla stands up immediately and speeds down the stairs, presumably to tell Vanellope about what happened. You want to come down, too, but after you see everyone else finish. Your interest has been piqued enough for you at least to want to know the order.

And as Carla is talking to Vanellope, the others' cars come in, and you learn who makes third place through...fourteenth place. Weren't there supposed to be sixteen?

Having a feeling you know why those last two are taking so long, you climb down. And you reach the ground just in time for Carla to run off and Vanellope to get back in her car and drive to the scene of the accident. You're reminded that Ralph is here when he takes off, too. From behind you, you hear, "Guess we'll be standing here for a while."

You turn around and see that it's Kyoko, who, along with Brittany, has joined you. "I guess so," you say. "But I just hope that those last two kids are okay."

"At least one of them is," Brittany says. To prove her point, she points to a spot past you, and when you follow your finger, you can see an orange-skinned kid, his racing jacket flying behind him as he runs toward you. It must be the "Swizzle" that Brittany mentioned earlier.

He stops short once he's near the cars.

"Swizz, you're here!" says one of the racers. "Why aren't you in your car?"

"It's...Nougetsia..." he manages to squeeze out as he's trying to catch his breath. "She got...knocked out..."

"Doesn't that happen _all the time_?" asks a boy with a peanut butter cup on his head.

"Well, yeah," Swizzle answers, his breath now caught, "but this wasn't just some knockout by a gumball. She full on crashed! And I've never seen a kart smoke like that."

Taffyta rolls her eyes. "So what? The game resets every time Vanellope crosses the finish line. It should be fixed now."

The cherry-themed girl who spoke up before does so again. "And you still didn't answer my question! Why didn't you drive here?"

"Because my car stopped working! The engine just gave out."

"It should have reset, too," someone else notes.

"I _know_ ," Swizzle answers, getting a bit annoyed. "But since when do engines just stop? And besides, I didn't mind running the rest of the course. Gave me an extra boost, you know what I'm sayin'?"

After that, it becomes eerily quiet as everyone waits for Vanellope and the others to get back. As you're standing there, you wonder what to do while you wait, and after they come.

>Find out if that Felix guy can fix this.

>Pester one of the racer kids for more information about the game's mysterious past.

>Go somewhere else, and leave these people to themselves.

>Ask if there's any way you can help.


	5. >Ask if there's any way you can help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All that waiting, and it's a short one. Sorry. But this was a crucial decision I felt I should leave to the commenters.

" _This_ doesn't sound good," you comment. "Anything I can do to help?"

The racers turn to look at you, as if they just noticed you're there. "Thanks, but we don't know!" says a girl with rainbow hair made of flavored ice. "You'll have to wait for Nel and the others to get back."

"Do we even _need_ help?" asks a boy in a pumpkin hat.

"I sure hope not!" a green-haired girl in a bow resembling a candy wrapper says. "I don't need some sabotage plan ruining my evening!"

The group fills the air with chatter about what could possibly be going on and if it's even important, and after a little while, an announcement breaks up the noise. "We're back!" Vanellope and Carla run ahead of Ralph, who pushes both broken karts into the starting area. The one occupying the pink vehicle must be Nougetsia, and now that you're seeing her in person, it isn't hard to spot her resemblance to another racer, the one in the fluffy winter hat with earflaps. In fact, they're the same racer in different color schemes.

In fact, looking around, you find that there are a few of these color swaps. That cherry-themed girl has one, and the girl with the bow has _two_ of them. Did the game designers just run out of ideas?

It's best you put the thought aside for now. There's something more important to worry about, and besides, you're not sure if the color swaps like it when people point out they're color swaps. Or if they're even the color swaps; they could be the originals, for all you know. Your assumption is only on the grounds that you saw the other racers first.

So instead of wondering about it more, you run up to the group that just entered. "So you couldn't fix the cars?"

"Nope," Vanellope admits. "The cars must be reset-proof!"

"Well, is there anything I can do to help?" you ask again.

"I appreciate the offer 'n all, but you can't solve a problem when you don't know what it is, can ya, lady?" After a pause, she adds, "Hey, wait just a milk dud minute here!"

"What is it?"

"You guys never told me your names! I know THIS is Carla, but what about the rest of you?"

"Oh, sorry! I'm ______, this is Kyoko, and that's Brittany," you say.

"Thank you," the President says, smiling.

Kyoko speaks up. "Uh-huh. Now that we've all been acquainted, shouldn't somebody be figuring out what the problem is?"

"You have a point there, Kyoko. Now, Nouget, Swizz?"

Both mentioned racers turn to Vanellope. "Yeah?"

"Mind if I check under your hoods?"

"No way!"

"Nope."

"Excellent." Vanellope pulls on a latch in each car, popping the hoods open. "Leapin' licorice! Your engines are..." She dips a finger into each engine and tastes the collected samples. "...jammed!" Someone should start keeping track of all these food puns, you think.

"Jammed? But how?" Swizzle asks, taking a closer look at his own car. "And _why_?"

It's silent for a moment while Vanellope inspects the engines some more. After a few seconds, her head shoots up. "Don't tell me someone _else_ got into the code!"

"You mean someone already did?" Ralph asks.

Vanellope turns to him. "Don't you remember? How I was supposed to be a princess?

"Oh, right!" Ralph says. "Duh."

"A-doy!" Vanellope adds, laughing. But soon she calms down. "Anyway, this calls for investigation. Ralph, you go get Magic Hammer Guy."

"Felix?" Ralph asks.

"Yeah, him," Vanellope confirms. "The rest of you, I need a detective team!"

Kyoko taps you on the shoulder. "Hey, ______?" she whispers.

You turn to face her. "Yeah?"

"Are you sure we should be getting involved with this? I mean, it's not our game, and this could take a while."

"It's not Ralph's game, either," you point out, "but he's helping out a friend. So that's what I feel I should do. I don't plan to take ll night."

Kyoko still doesn't look pleased.

"If _you'd_ rather go home now, that's fine," you assure her. "Just don't go to that Hero's Duty or anything else too dangerous without us."

"I know. I heard Sonic." She's referring to the public service announcement that played while you were in the station. If you die outside of your game, Sonic the Hedgehog warned, you don't regenerate. Not that you and your friends have any intention to die at all; it's not typically a part of lighthearted dating sims.

Kyoko continues. "But I think I'll stay for now. It'd get boring just hanging by myself."

"I'm staying, too!" Brittany adds.

As soon as you finish your "Okay," the voice of a young executive officer snaps you to attention. You whirl back around.

"And ______!" Vanellope says. "You said you wanted to help, right?"

"Uh, yeah," you reply. "Do you need me for something?"

"Considering you're our guest, I'll let you pick what to do." After hearing your options, you:

>Take a walk along the race track to find clues.

>Help investigate the less explored regions of Sugar Rush.

>Go with Ralph to get Felix.

>Ask the nearest Surge Protector about the arcade's crime history.

 


End file.
